FLAMINGO – Fulfilling enhanced location accuracy in the mass-market through initial GalileO services

This paper discusses FLAMINGO, an initiative that will provide a high accuracy positioning service to be used by mass market applications. The status and future for the initiative are discussed, the required accuracies and other location parameters are described, and the target applications are identified. Finally, the currently achieved accuracies from today’s Smartphones are assessed and presented. FLAMINGO (Fulfilling enhanced Location Accuracy in the Mass-market through Initial GalileO services), part funded through the European GNSS Agency, is a collaborative venture comprising NSL (as lead organization), Telespazio France, University of Nottingham, Rokubun, Thales Alenia Space France, VVA, BQ, ECLEXYS and Blue Dot Solutions. The initiative is developing the infrastructure, solutions and services to enable the use of accurate and precise GNSS within the mass-market, thereby operating predominantly in an urban environment. Whilst mass-market receivers are yet to achieve accuracies below one metre for standard positioning, the introduction of Android raw GNSS measurements and the Broadcom dual frequency chipset (BCM47755), has presented the devices such an opportunity. FLAMINGO will enable and demonstrate the future of high accuracy positioning and navigation information on mass-market devices such as smartphones and Internet of Things (IoT) devices by producing a service delivering accuracies of 50cm (at 95%) and better, employing multi-constellation, PPP and RTK mechanisms, power consumption optimisation techniques. Whereas the Galileo High Accuracy Service targets 10cm precision within professional markets, FLAMINGO targets 30-50cm precision in the mass-market consumer markets. By targeting accuracies of a few decimetres, a range of improved and new applications in diverse market sectors are introduced. These sectors include, but are not limited to, mapping and GIS, autonomous vehicles, AR environments, mobile-location based gaming and people tracking. To obtain such high accuracies with mass market devices, FLAMINGO must overcome several challenges which are technical, operational and environmental. This includes the hardware capabilities of most mass-market devices, where components such as antennas and processors are prioritised for other purposes. We demonstrate that, despite these challenges, FLAMINGO has the potential to meet the accuracy required. Tests with the current Smartphones that provide access to multi-constellation raw measurements (the dual frequency Xiaomi Mi 8 and single frequency Samsung S8 and Huawei P10) demonstrate significant improvements to the PVT solution when processing using both RTK and PPP techniques

Les îles Trévorc'h à Saint-Pabu (Finistère) : un patrimoine au péril des mers

National audienc

Les îles Trévorc'h à Saint-Pabu (Finistère) : un patrimoine au péril des mers

National audienc

Nouvelles recherches à l'île du Bec, Lampaul-Ploudalmézeau (Finistère)

National audienc

Bio-physical feedbacks in the Arctic Ocean using an Earth system model

An Earth System model with an oceanic biogeochemical component is shown to reproduce accurately the seasonal course of sea-ice and chlorophyll distribution in the Arctic region. It is argued that the phytoplankton blooms that occur concomitantly with the ice retreat along the Arctic coastal shelves in spring and summer strongly impact the Arctic climate and improve the sea-ice distribution in the model. Indeed, these blooms modify the vertical distribution of radiant heating and trap the penetrating solar heat flux at the surface in these regions. The resulting surface warming triggers a reduction of sea-ice thickness and concentration. This reduction increases the solar energy penetrating into the ocean, therefore providing a positive feedback that further amplifies the direct biological warming. The increased melting, precipitation and runoff related to these bio-physical feedbacks freshen the Arctic Ocean and the Greenland Sea, provoking a slight slowdown of the overturning circulation

Role of sea ice in global biogeochemical cycles: Emerging views and challenges

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